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Fish Culture Compared i,i Impwiancc with Ag.'icnitnre, 



SPEECH 



HOI. ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT, 



OF ISTETST YOKK3 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



MAI 18, 1872. 




WASHINGTON: 

F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 

REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONaRESS, 

1872, 



ii 



rv 
D 






FISH CULTURE. 



Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Speaker, the art 
of cultivating fish by artificial means is no new 
thing, it is not an untried theory, resting more 
in hope than in experience, but has passed 
from the 'realm of experiment into absolute 
certainty. It has become a fixed art, and, 
although as yet scarcely developed, has grown 
into a business of considerable magnitude and 
great importance. Persons unacquainted with 
the matter have little idea of the discoveries 
which have been made and the wonderful suc- 
cesses of those who have devoted themselves 
to the study and investigation of this subject, 
and do not appreciate the extent of the 
influence which it is certain to exercise on 
the future of this country, a country that is 
wonderfully blessed in this particular as in 
all others, and is adapted to fish culture to a 
degree that exists nowhere else. 

The older nations had a vague notion of this 
industry. In China it has been carried on for 
centuries, as well ages ago as it is now, like 
most of the discoveries of that unprogressive 
people. The Romans were scarcely so well 
informed, and only developed the natural 
method; and the first real attempts which pro- 
duced practical results were made in France 
in quite modern times, when the discoveries 
of the past were discovered over again. In 
that scientific and cultivated nation, however, 
the matter attracted immediate attention, and 
its importance was appreciated by a people 
which has long been forced to make the most of 
its food resources. The Government took it in 



hand, and, soon satisfied of its practicability, 
built the national establishment at Arcachon. 
At first blunders, of course, were made. Find- 
ing uncertainty, an uncertainty arising solely 
from ignorance, in impregnating and hatching 
the artificially impregnated eggs, resort was had 
to collect the ova from the various streams 
of the country, after it had been deposited 
there, in the natural method, and developing 
it under proper supervision and guarded from 
enemies and disease. Directions were at the 
same time published for stripping the parent 
fish of their eggs, so that the ripe spawn might 
also be saved from any mature individuals 
which should happen to be caught. 

This plan, however, was unsatisfactory ; it 
was but little more than robbing Peter to pay 
Paul. Not only was much unripe and worth- 
less spawn taken through ignorance or cupid- 
ity, but the natural supply was carried from 
the streams to such an extent that they were 
greatly denuded, and were run down to a 
degree which was hardly made good by the 
supplies of young fry which were afterward 
sent to them from the national establishment. 
These errors were, however, corrected in time ; 
greater knowledge and skill were attained, 
better methods and machinery were invented, 
and in the end Arcachon became a success, fish- 
culture triumphed over the obsracles in its way, 
and many of the waters of France which had 
been entirely depleted were replenished, and 
the fisheries were restored to a condition of 
fruitfulness which they had not known for 



years, while a most important article of diet 
was furnished to the people at cheaper rates 
and in more abundant -quantities. Up to this 
time deterioration and increasing scarcity had 
been the rule, but soon an improvement began 
which has far more than repaid the expense 
incurred by the Government, and has led to 
consequences the public value of which cannot 
be overestimated. 

England was not long in following the ex- 
ample of France. The salmon fishery has been 
the principal estuary and fresh- water fishery 
of Great Britain, and it also had been injured 
by mismanagement and neglect and overwork, 
Salmon had long been far beyond the reach 
of all but the wealthier classes, and even they 
were beginning lo experience trouble to obtain 
as much as they needed at reasonable rates. 
Streams which had yielded abundantly within 
the memory of man were comparatively unpro- 
ductive, and in some instances were absolutely 
bare offish. The Irish and Scotch fisheries 
were not so badly off as those of England, but 
even they were reduced far below what they 
had been. Steps were taken to replenish 
these, partly by private action, partly by public. 
Parliament, appointed boards of fish conserv- 
ators and an inspector of salmon fisheries and 
paid liberal salaries, and passed wise laws for 
the protection of the young and the spawning 
fish. The consequences were the same as they 
had been in France, and soon fish became 
more plenty; the salmon fishery in one river 
having more than doubled in actual rental in a 
few years, while the yield was proportionally 
increased. Germany, Austria, Russia, all fol- 
lowed the example ; all made this a national 
enterprise and found it to their interest to pay 
liberally to restock their waters with a means 
of supplying food to the people which had been 
so nearly annihilated. In all, establishments for 
the artifical propagation of the most valuable 
varieties are established at various points, and 
yearly furnish most gratifying evidences of the 
industrial value of this, which promises to be 
the most widely beneficial of all the discoveries 
of modern times; for if it is true that that man 
is a public benefactor who has made two blades 
of grass grow where one grew before, much 
more so is he who has restored to the people 
a food supply which had almost ceased to exist. 



and the extinction of which was looked upon' 
as the necessary consequence of the increase 
of population, it being expected to expire 
precisely when it was most needed. 

Such is a cursory statement of what has 
been done abroad. It alone would justify the 
United States in following the example of the 
older nations, and taking this matter under 
national protection. It is essentially a national 
matter; the States alone cannot take charge of 
it and manage it efiiciently ; they cannot even 
pass laws which will thoroughly protect the 
fish at seasons when they should not be dis- 
turbed. Rivers run through different States, or 
are the boundaries between them, and the laws 
made for part or for one shore might not be 
identical with those made for other places. 
Unity of action is essential, for it is useless to 
protect in one locality if wanton destruction is 
permitted in another. 

Many species are migratory ; that is, pafes 
from the ocean at certain seasons of the year 
after they have grown fat feeding there during 
their period of rest, up the streams into the 
fresh water, where alone can they deposit their 
eggs and hatch their young. In these cased 
the fishermen along the coast are jealous of 
those on the upper waters ; the former com- 
plain that the latter destroy the parents whil6' 
they are spawning, and in this way destroy thie( 
race; while the latter complain that the coast 
fishermen use improper and murderous methods 
of fishing, and kill out the entire supply before 
they can have a chance to reach their spawn- 
ing beds. Unfortunately, both these com-, 
plaints are too well founded. Each clas^ 
takes all it can, blind to the future, which 
presses closer and closer on the heels of such 
want of foresight ; it looks only to immediate 
gratification, and accepts the proverb, "after 
me a famine." 

The navigable streams of this country are 
subject to the jurisdiction of the national Gov- 
ernment, and this is even more clearly the case 
with the coast line within three miles of the 
shore. This is a general rule of law, and if 
there are any exceptions to it they do not 
exist in the western States, where the rivers 
were expressly reserved to the nation. It is 
not necessary for the purposes of this applica- 
tion to maintain so broad a proposition, as it 



is not intended to take any actual control of 
legislation on this subject at present, but only 
to develop the natural resources by artificial 
means, restock waters which have been ex- 
hausted, spread information concerning the 
matter, and lead the people either to protect- 
ing their own rivers or to granting unques- 
tionable authority to Congress to do so. And 
it is to that alone which the proposed law 
addresses itself 

The progress made abroad has been stated, 
and it has been shown to be sufficiently en- 
couraging to induce our country to follow the 
example, but the cases are different in many 
,, points, and in every point to the advantage 
of the United States. The extent of our inland 
waters is something that is hardly understood 
abroad, and is not properly appreciated at 
home. Our vast lakes, enormous rivers, in- 
numerable streams, brooks, ponds, bays, 
^^eoons, creeks, and rivulets, are not equaled 
, in any other quarter of the globe. In the 
pState of New York alone we have far more 
■area of water than in Great Britain and France 
united, the actual acreage being 466,457 
acres, while entire foreign States might be 
:almost swallowed up in several of our larger 
Jakes. Our rivers run a distance equal to one 
$fth of the circumference of the globe, and 
are navigable thousands of miles above their 
^mouths. But more important than all this is 
i;t.he character of our fish, for we have the finest 
\..fi8h in the world for artificial cultivation, the 
^,mQ8t prolific, the easiest managed, and the 
yipost remunerative. This is a superiority more 
,^4™portant than the other matters, and in this 
;.,tilature has been, wonderfully kind to us. 

In order to explain this difference I shall 
^jbave to describe with some detail the njethod 
vjpf manipulating the parents and raising the 
^jpung under the, artificial method. Fish are 
.(-•exceedingly prolific ; nature seems to have 
made them the great store-house of food 
which was to be held in reserve until an in- 
creasing population should have required it for 
, support. Every need of the humankind seems 
to be met as it is developed, and the earth ap- 
parently holds in its recesses the secrets which 
are to keep the world thriving and progress- 
!. for ages, and until it shall be covered with 
a swarming and happy population, denser than 



is now imagined to be possible, or than learned 
essayists on a subject they do not comprehend 
would permit as at all prudent. Fish food is 
manifestly one of the means which are to 
make such a result possible, and intellectual 
care is to develop this resource to a degree as 
. yet hardly dreamed of by the most enthusiastic. 

Different species of fish, however, vary re- 
markably in the extent of their fecundity. A 
cod and a herring each deposit a million 
eggs, so that a dozen females of either, 
were all their eggs to hatch and attain ma- 
turity, would furnish the entire yield of the 
present time. Twelve million cod is an in- 
credible number, and unless nature had pro- 
vided a means of reducing this fecundity the 
ocean would long ago have been filled, till 
there would have been more fish than water, 
and the sea would have been foul with their 
decaying bodies. There is, however, no danger 
of any such state of affairs ; the difficulty at 
present lies in the other direction. These are 
the most prolific species, but the others do not 
come so far behind, shad producing from ten 
to twenty thousand eggs to each pound of their 
weight, and consequently yielding from thirty 
thousand to one hundred thousand eggs each. 
Salmon and trout are not so productive, hav- 
ing only about two thousand eggs to each pound, 
and not even that in the largest. We have not 
yet learned to breed cod or herring, but we can 
breed shad, and hence we have an advantage 
over the European nations that is precisely 
proportionate to the relation that two bears to 
twenty. Here is an immense point gained, 
for shad grow as rapidly or nearly as rapidly 
as salmon and far more so than trout, and they 
are as delicious a fish on the table if not quite 
so substantial a meal. 

Nor is this all. Salmon and trout require 
three months or thereabouts to hatch, while 
shad hatch within a week. The former must 
be carefully watched and have special appli- 
ances in the matter of water and location; the 
latter need no attention, and hatch in a com- 
mon box with a wire grating fastened over the 
bottom. Salmon and trout are helpless for 
thirty days after they are born, being weighed 
down with what is called the umbilical sack, 
the unabsorbed portion of the egg. Shad are 
able to take care of themselves and seek their 



6 



own food the moment they burst the shell. The 
former must be fed when young and pro- 
tected from their enemies for months, salmon 
not leaving the fresh water and descending to 
the sea usually till a year or more after biith, 
whereas the little shad seek the ocean as soon 
as they are turned loose, and need no care or 
food till they come back grown fish ready for 
the gridiron or the baking-pan. 

To explain these differences fully, and to show 
also what can be done even with the least pro- 
lific fish, it will be necessary to describe the 
mode of raising the young by hand as it were, 
for it is not intended to confine the national 
operations of fish culture t^ shad by any means, 
or to exclude the nobler and more valu- 
able if more troublesome salmon. There are 
three great classes of fish as viewed from the 
stand-point of the fish-culturist, each having 
a different mode of laying its eggs and raising 
its young. First, the salmon tribe, what 
ichthyologists call the salmonidce, which de- 
posit their eggs in fresh cold water, digging 
nests for them and covering them up as fast 
as they are impregnated by the male; sec- 
ondly, the herring family, which includes the 
shad, another migratory species, but whose 
eggs are left uncovered to drift in compara- 
tively siill fresh water; and, thirdly, the 
perch family, which includes the black bass, 
which deposit their eggs in a mass kepttogether 
by a mucous or gelatenous substance which is 
exuded with them. The latter cannot be 
hatched artificially, the mode of manipulating 
either fish or spawn not having been discov- 
ered, and it is only with the first two classes 
that the fish-culturist has anything to do at pres- 
ent, and these differ wholly in their methods 
of incubation, if that word can be used in 
default of a better. 

The female salmon digs out a hollow with 
her nose and tail in the bottom of some cold 
stream, near its head- waters, and where the 
current has a gentle and regular flow. She 
brushes away the dirt and sand with her fins 
and leaves a bottom of broken stones the size 
of a bantam's egg. All this while her accepted 
mate, who has won her favor possibly after 
many a tough battle with rival suitors, watches 
near at hand to drive off interlopers. As soon 
as she has prepared the nest to her satistac- 



tion and the first throes of egg birth come 
upon her the male darts to her side, presses 
close against her, often seizing her by the gills 
and exudes the fertilizing fluid with his body 
in contact with hers, so that the eggs receive 
it the moment they issue. This act over and the- 
male retires for a time to resume his watch^ 
calmly devouring any stray eggs which come 
in his way or have been carried off by the 
current, while the female proceeds to cover 
those which have been impregnated. To do 
this she brings stones with her fins carefully 
and places them so as to protect but not injure- 
her precious deposit. She is aided by the fact 
that salmon eggs are almost as heavy as shot 
and have the faculty of sticking for almost 
half an hour to whatever they touch whea 
they are first exuded, although they afterward 
become free. So they sink at once and adhere 
to the bottom long enough for her to cover them 
before they are washed away. As soon as the 
first deposit is properly covered, the operation 
of spawning is renewed, and so on perhaps for 
several days, till quite a mound of small stones 
is erected on the spot where the fishy labors 
have been expended. Then the parents, 
weary, exhausted, ugly, ungainly, almost dead, 
descend slowly to the sea, sickly in themselves 
and worthless as food until fine living on fat 
crustaceans and lively minnows shall have re- 
stored their flesh, strength, and beauty. At 
this season they are utterly unfit for food, and 
those who eat them often eat maggots as well, 
and the ignorant epicures who put on their 
tables these fish in December have the satis- 
faction of knowing that they are eating salmon 
flavored with worms, and very poor and thin 
at that. 

But no sooner has that pair of spawners 
left their nest than another pair comes along, 
and here begins the first difficulty in piscato- 
rial housekeeping, for the second pair are 
exceedingly apt to select for their operations 
the identical spot chosen by the first, not only 
destroying the nest utterly but devouring with 
apparent gusto all the eggs which were so 
carefully housed. By instinct the most favor- 
able spots, as where a brook comes in, or a 
spring bubbles up from the bottom, are first 
chosen, and these will be dug over half a 
dozen times, perhaps, before the last pair 



visits it and secures it for their young. Nev- 
ertheless, the perils of the embryotic state 
are not over by any means, for all creatures 
that live on or in the water seem to be fond 
of fish-roe. Eels wriggle about it, ducks 
poke their bills among the stones to reach 
it, little shiners and minnows devour it, 
and water-bugs of many varieties live on it. 
Nor is that all ; sedinient settles on it, silt 
washes over and smothers it, and fungus grows 
on it. It must be free to a steady flow of 
water or it will perish, and one bad egg will 
contribute the contagion to a dozen healthy 
ones. 

The wonder is not that fish are so scarce, 
but that there are any at all. Still, some of 
it hatches, and what have we now ? A poor, 
miserable little fish, half an inch long, left 
to his own resources in the world to get his 
breakfast, dinner, and tea as best he can ; 
and not only that, but actually loaded down 
with a big bag like an extra belly, which he 
must carry about with him and which impedes 
his every motion for thirty days. No wonder 
he hides his head under the stones and falls 
an easy prey to enemies too numerous to men- 
tion. Suppose he makes his way to shallow 
wa,ter, and there near the shore he hides till he 
has gathered strength and activity. He has 
to wait from six to eighteen months before he 
can venture to the sea, for were the fry in 
their then condition placed in salt water they 
would perish at once. The eggs are laid in 
November or December, and the fry appear 
in January, February, or March, according to 
the temperature of the water — the warmer 
the water, thequicker the young hatch, but the 
nfore slowly they are developed the stronger 
they are supposed to be, their period of gesta- 
tion varying from seventy-five to one hundred 
and twenty days. Next fall about one half of 
them will change their appearance and become 
covered with visible scales. They are then 
technically called smolts, and the scales, smolt 
scales, and then they are ready to descend to 
the sea. The residue will not undergo their 
change till a year later, when they also will 
seek a new life. When they have attained this 
age they are, comparatively speaking, safe, and 
are pretty sure to return the following spring 



as grilse, which is the sporting name of a 
salmon that has not spawned, and will weigh 
from two to six pounds, and be as beautiful fish 
as ever gladdened the heart of sportsman or 
stomach of epicure. After spawning they wiU 
again go to the sea and once more return the 
ensuing year the magnificent salmon of from six 
to twelve pounds, and thereafter gain every sea- 
son nearly half a dozen pounds till they come 
to kick the beam at seventy or eighty, having 
attained an age that is a mere matter of con- 
jecture. 

Salmon invariably return to the river where 
they were bred. This has been conclusively 
proved by many interesting experiments, one 
alone of which need be mentioned. The sec- 
ond back fin, the small adipose dorsal as it ia 
termed, has been cut oflF before they were 
allowed to descend the river, and while they 
were shut up in some fresh-water pond. Grilse 
and salmon were afterward taken in the same 
stream without this fin. This habit seems to 
rule with all fish of an anadromous dis- 
position, and although there was a doubt 

whether it held good with shad, that doubt 

has been removed, and it is now established i <t / 
that not only will these return to the place where 
they first saw life, but to the particular spot, 
rarely stopping short, or ascending higher, 
even, than that locality. 

It is perfectly apparent, from this short ex- 
planation, that the ova incur innumerable 
risks and are far more than decimated before 
they hatch. The only wonder is that any live, 
and it has been estimated that not one in five 
hundred comes to maturity. With this explan- 
ation it ceases to be a matter of surprise that 
nature has given this class of creatures such 
wonderful recuperative power ; were it other- 
wise the race would die out in the face of so 
many difficulties and enemies. But at the same 
time the slightest thought will show how enorm- 
ously this fecundity can be made to work in 
the interest of man, and what a ready means 
is here offered for the increase of food for the 
human race. Care can remove these dangers 
and drive away or exterminate these enemies, 
and turn this fertility to full advantage ; and 
the method of doing so I will proceed briefly 
to explain. 



8 



The salmon, when they ascend the river to 
spawn, are shut in some suitable part of the 
water, being either inveigled there as a favor- 
able spawning-ground or caught in nets and 
forcibly put there ; and when they are^ fully 
ready, when they are ripe, as it is termed; 
that is, when the eggs lie p'erfectly loose and 
free in the stomach, they are taken from the 
water, held over a tin pan, and forced to ex- 
trude the spawn and milt by gentle pressure on 
their sides with the hand. And in this oper- 
ation a wonderful advance has been made 
within the last year. Heretofore it was the 
custom to fill the pans with the water, as this 
was supposed to most nearly resemble the 
natural method ; but now little or no water is 
used, it being found that water drowns the 
spermatozoa or life principle of the milt. 
This change of practice alone has made a 
difference of fully twenty per cent, of the 
yield, as it is found that the impregnation is 
far more certain by this plan. Care must be 
taken, however, that the fish are entirely ripe, 
and that the eggs will run out under a slight 
pressure ; if they will not the fish is returned 
to the water till it is in proper condition. 

The eggs are left for half an hour undisturbed, 
and then are washed and spread in troughs 
which are filled to the depth of an inch with 
clean pebbles, and through which flows a gen- 
tle current of filtered spring water, and there 
they remain away from fowls and fish and 
bugs, safe from sediment and fungus till they 
hatch. They only require occasional exami- 
natioa for the purpose of preventing the col- 
lection of deleterious matter, and to remove 
such as may die and endanger the others. 
When they hatch they are left in the troughs 
till the umbilical sack is absorbed, when they 
are placed in ponds and fed on beef liver finely 
grated. Under this management all the seri- 
ous perils of the natural method are averted 
and the difference in the result is almost in- 
credible, being little less than as a thousand 
to one. 

These directions apply to all the salmon 
tribe — the salmon, the trout, the salmon- 
trout and the white-fish, all of which have the 
same peculiarities. To explain the process 
more fully, I will quote from the report of the 



New York commissioners of fisheries, pre- 
sented to the Legislature of that State March 
19, 1872: 

"State Hatching- Houte. — By the last amendment 
to the act of the Legislature, concerning the proteo- 
tion offish in this State, the commissioners of fish- 
eries were authorized to build a State hatching 
establishment for the purpose of breeding the better 
kinds of fish for distribution throughout the wa.ters 
of the State. This building was erected during the 
summer of 1870, and was completed in time for use 
in the artificial incubation of salmon-trout and 
whi*,e-fish. It is neither a very large nor a very 
costly establishment, but is the most efiicient, prac- 
tically, and the most productive in results of any in 
the world. The water is introduced in the ordinary 
way, through a number of flannel sieves, and is 
led into twenty-four troughs, which are sixteen feet 
in length by fifteen inches in the clear in width. 
These troughs are raised about two feet from the 
ground, so that a person sitting on a stool alongside 
of them can readily examine the condition of the 
ova during the period when they are hatching. The 
lower end of the trough is an inch lower than the 
upper end, so as to give a gentle motion to the 
waters which are introduced into them. The water 
flows from a spigot about an inch in diameter, and 
through anotherflannelscreen,which is an additional 
protection against the accumulation of sediment. 

"The troughs stand in pairs, so that the workmen 
can readily overlook them by passing on each side 
through a passageway left for that purpose. They 
are divided up into compartments at every two feet, 
and at first, when the eggs are being hatched, the 
water running through them is only about half an 
inch deep. The moment, however, the fish are out 
of the egg, screens are introduced at each compart- 
ment, and a piece of board being put across the 
lower end of the trough the water is raised to about 
three inches in depth. 

" The State hatching^house has been greatly en- 
larged the past season, and operations for the winter 
hatching of fish have been, on an unpreoedeated 
scale, commenced. Millions of the spawn of salmon- 
trout were taken there from the great lakes to be 
distributed through the State, or to be developed and 
then di.'<tribnted. It is much easier and less expen- 
sive to distributo the ova than the young fishes. The 
ova may be transported anywhere during the month 
of December, but no later. More attention than 
heretofore has been paid to the cultivation of salmon- 
trout,' and less to that of white-fish, for it was found 
that objection was made to the introduction of white- 
fish in many of our ponds, on the ground that they 
have to be c.^ught with a net, and that while they 
are being taken, many other fish which could be 
caught with a hook and line are destroyed at the 
same time. With salmon-trout this is altogether 
different; and as they bite readily at a hook, are a 
handsome game fish, and good for the table, it is pro- 
posed hereafter to raiseafar greater portionofthem, 
and few, if any, white-fish. 



\ 



9 



"A full detailed account of these operations is 
appended, and the eonamissioners pride themselves 
upon not only building the cheapest and largest 
fish-breeding cstablishmont in this country or in the 
world, but also in building one that has in every way 
proved an entire success, and which is capable of 
supplying all the public waters in this State with all 
the salmon tribes of fish." 

So much for salmon. Now for shad; and it 
is rather remarkable that the whole process is 
dissimilar, so much so that it had actually to 
be discovered over again. So entirely differ- 
ent are the two processes that I cannot do 
better than describe the manner in which the 
latter mode was discovered. The credit of 
this is due to our country, and to Mr. Seth 
Green, of Rochester, New York, who is the 
ablest pisciculturist to-day in the world, and 
whose name will hereafter be written in the 
list of those who have deserved well of the 
Republic. He offered his services to the New 
England commissioners, and proceeding to the 
Connecticut river set about his operations in 
May, 1857. He had little difficulty in catch- 
ing ripe fish and none in extracting the 
spawn, to which he was accustomed from 
handling trout, although be afterward ascer- 
tained that the true time to take the parents 
was at night, from eight to twelve p. m., 
as they seek the spawning beds principally 
during the dark, but he soon found other and 
more serious troubles. He naturally pursued 
the same method he had followed with trout, 
placing the impregnated eggs in a trough and 
turning on a gentle current of water. What 
was his surprise, however, when he saw all 
the eggs wash out over the lower end of his 
trough. Here was the first striking difference, 
vtthereas trout eggs are almost as heavy as 
shot. The ova of shad have little more spe- 
cific gravity than water, and will nearly float 
of themselves. Then he reduced the current 
and the eggs all died. This was failure num- 
ber one. He next tried leaving them in a pool 
near shore, where there was no change of 
water, and found the eggs all opaque and 
lifeless next morning — failure number two. 
He then built a low dam of small stones so 
-as to make a pond in the course of the cur- 
rent, and so that the water would find its way 
through the crevices, but still only a trifling 
quantity hatched — failure number three. He 



next tried boxes, putting wire sieving over the 
ends and the bottoms and the sides, but in 
vain, till he was almost in despair, and the 
season had nearly reached its close. Then 
fortune favored him. He happened to be 
p'anding in the water experimenting with a 
box that had the wire sieving on the bottom, 
and which was filled with eggs, and accident- 
ally elevated the front end so that the current 
struck the bottom at an angle. He observed 
that some of the eggs lying in the lower end 
were lifted and kept in motion like the bub- 
bles boiling up in a tea-kettle; he elevated the 
further end a little and more eggs boiled up ; 
he raised it still further and they all com- 
menced boiling madly, although the water did 
not pass over the top of the box at the lower 
end. The question was solved, and thereafter 
shad hatching was a certainty and a success, 
and no ordinary success either, for while of 
trout and salmon nearly ten per cent, are lost 
even now with dry impregnation, with shad the 
loss is so trivial that, practically speaking, 
absolutely all are hatched. 

Mr. Green fell jubilant, but he was by no 
means out of the woods. He soon had his 
boxes filled with young, for instead of taking 
months, like salmon, shad issue from the egg 
in a few days, and he proceeded to dispose of 
them as he would do with trout. The latter, 
as soon as they can swim, seek the shore to 
hide under grass, weeds, and stones, but when 
the shad were set free in the shallow water all 
the shiners, dace, minnows, killeys, and other 
small fish in the entire neighborhood collected 
as though they were invited to a feast, and 
proceeded to devour them in a way that was 
exceedingly painful to a parent's eye. Here 
was a second perplexity, and there was noth- 
ing for it but to wait for an explanation or an 
inspiration. So a pond was built on the side 
of the river, and the youthful adventurers lefl 
there till some one should find out what to do 
with them. Next morning they had appar- 
ently all disappeared, and were finally found 
huddled together at the outer edge of the pool. 
Here was a suggestion, and to test its signifi- 
cance another pond was made, narrow, but 
running far out into the stream, and into this 
the fry were transferred. Next morning they 
were again discovered collected at its outward 



10 



extremity, evidently trying to reach the center 
of the river, and that problem was solved. 

Now, the moment the shad are hatched, the 
boxes are towed out into mid-stream, and 
there, away from the small but dangerous foes 
along shore, and too minute to attract the 
bigger denizens of the deep water, the little 
fish are turned loose to find their own way to 
the ocean, which they do by gradually floating 
down stream, keeping their heads to the cur- 
rent to catch such food, invisible to man, as 
may come along, and feebly wagging their tails 
to acquire strength and activity. In two years 
the males return weighing something under a 
pound, and in three years they reappear, males 
and females, the magnificent fish, from two 
to five pounds, that are so welcome to our 
table. 

The difi"erence between the natural and arti- 
ficial method is too great almost to appreciate. 
Take the case of a shad depositing by the 
natural method sixty *,housand eggs. Of these, 
at the utmost, one hundred and twenty hatch, 
and this is probably the outside limit. Of this 
number say one quarter mature, the proportion 
in this stage being a mere matter of conjec- 
ture, and we have a final return of thirty for 
two or fifteen for one. 

Now, by the artificial method the entire 
sixty thousand are hatched and started in life 
away from their enemies. Of these, if a 
quarter reappear, we have fifteen thousand in 
lieu of thirty. Keep this up at a geometrical 
ratio and the results are simply incalculable. 
Rivers that are now deserted could be filled to 
"repletion, so that there would be abundance for 
netters, seiners, and fishermen of all kinds, 
whether they fished in season or out of season, 
early or late, and with murderous or legitimate 
implements. This is the object to be obtained, 
and although at first it may be desirable to 
have protective laws till the propagating- 
houses are established and in working, in the 
end they should be all swept away and the 
people allowed to pursue, catch, and eat when- 
ever they might feel so inclined. No river on 
our continent yields more than a million shad 
annually; so that with a moderate eflPort the 
supply could be immensely augmented ; but 
the effort should not be suspended until at 
least one hundred million young fry are placed 



alive in every stream of considerable size at 
present visited by these fine fish. 

The vast superiority of shad raising over 
salmon raising is perceived in a moment by 
a comparison of the two systems. The for- 
mer requires merely a few hundred boxes of 
common wood, with wire sieving over the bot- 
tom, covered with coal-tar to protect it from 
the action of the water. These boxes have 
pieces of wood nailed on their sides to act as 
floats, and at such an angle as to keep the 
bottom slightly inclined against the current, 
the degree of inclination being regulated by 
experiment. The boxes are strung behind one 
another in long lines, their floats projecting 
beyond the ends, and connected with ropes. 
The whole swings with the tide if in a tide- way> 
or tails out under the influence of the current, 
and needs no care except at slack-water, when 
they need jogging now and then to keep the 
eggs from being smothered. The expense 
of all this is so trifling as hardly to be worth 
mentioning, while the product is immense. 

The spawning-grounds are always near fish- 
ing-stations, and the fishermen can readily be 
induced to haul at night by a little extra 
remuneration, as they use the fish whether 
stripped or not. As soon as the net is hauled 
ashore and the fish thrown into a boat a pan 
half full of water — for dry impregnation has 
not yet been tried, although it will probably 
be universal in time — is placed near the oper- 
ator, to whom the fish are handed one after 
the other. He manipulates them, throwing 
them aside as fast as they are stripped, and 
when they have all been used he sets the pans 
aside for half an hour, during which time the 
eggs swell and become firm and turgid and the 
water falls ten degrees in temperature. This 
is repeated as often as the nets are hauled, and 
finally the pans are taken to the boxes and 
emptied into the latter, where the eggs remain 
till they hatch, the period varying according to 
the heat of the water from two days to seven. 
Nothing can be simpler than all this, and 
though, like everything else, it requires a little 
practice, the roughest and most ignorant man 
can soon acquire the requisite knowledge to 
manage the establishment. 

The great results which are promised by this 
enterprise are not mere matters of guess-work j 



11 



salmon have been cultivated abroad so as to 
restock abundantly many streams which had 
been entirely depleted, and liore the conse- 
quences of shad culture have proved them- 
selves to be exactly what it was predicted they 
would be. The same fall that the first experi- 
ments were made in the Connecticut, shad fry 
were noticed as being unusually abundant in 
the lower part of that river, more so than they 
had been known to be within the memory of 
the inhabitants. Three years later they re- 
turned — they were not expected sooner, such 
being their habit — and in numbers surpassing 
anything that the fishermen had experienced 
in years. At first this was supposed to be 
only an accident, and was explained by the 
unbelievers upon various theories, and these 
asked a suspension of judgment until the 
next year. But all theories in opposition were 
put to rout next season when the fishing was 
actually unprecedented, being better than had 
been known in fifty years. So decided was 
the effect of this improvement that the price 
of shad fell in the northern markets to less 
than one third of what it had been previously. 
And I will in this connection again quote from 
the report of the New York commissioners ; 

" Shad were far more abundant and far cheaper 
than they had been for years, both on the Connecti- 
cut and the Hudson; especially so on the former 
river, the yield from which actually glutted the mar- 
kets and reduced the wholesale price from eighteen 
dollars a hundred down to three. This was mani- 
festly the consequence of the previous efforts, and 
confirmed the predictions of those who had studied 
the habits of the fish. It was expected that the 
great body of such as were hatched would return in 
three or four years full grown ; and it was exactly 
fpur years previous that Mr. Seth Green, under the 
auspices of the New England commissioners, had 
first discovered the method of hatching shad, and 
had placed many millions of young fry in the Con- 
necticut. 

"Most of these returned to the river where they 
were born. The effect on the market, however, was 
mainly attributable to the yield of that river, which 
supplied New York and other adjacent cities so 
abundantly as seriously to reduce the profits of the 
fishermen on the Hudson. It is perfectly plain, 
from these results, that unless active steps are taken 
to restore our fisheries, and unless we keep pace in 
this matter with our eastern neighbors, our fisher- 
men will be entirely ruined. So entirely are the lat- 
ter satisfied of this, that there is no difficulty in ob- 
taining their consent to any measures that will tend 
toward accomplishing this end. The experiences 
of last season convinced the most incredulous, and 



they are now as anxions to encourage fish culture as 
they were once bitterly prejudiced against it." 

When a process to add to the wealth and 
resources of the nation is so simple and yet 
so valuable, it would be criminal in the Gov- 
ernment to refuse to lend a helping hand, as, 
for the reasons already given, this can never 
be a matter of private enterprise or even 
of State industry. Trout can be preserved 
in private ponds, and should be, as they are, 
left to professional fish culturists to produce, 
and these drive quite a trade and make large 
profits, there being many hundreds of thou- 
sandsof dollars invested in the business ; butno 
one individual can retain any ownership over 
a fish which must go to the sea, nor can even 
any single State, except in the rare case of 
the river being entirely within its own juris- 
diction. We have established a National Bu- 
reau of Agriculture on a large and expensive \ 
scale. Why should there not be a similar in- 
stitution for pisciculture? At least we can 
take a step in that direction, and begin on so 
small a scale as is proposed by this provision 
of law. 

The relative fertility of the water and the 
land is altogether in favor of the water. An 
acre of land will produce corn enough to sup- I 
port a human being, but an acre of water will 
support several persons, and could readily be 
made, with proper aid, to sustain the lives of 
many more. The former requires manuring, 
working, planting, and harvesting; the latter 
merely requires harvesting; and that where 
the fish are sufficiently abundant is hardly a 
labor at all. While ihe yield from the land is 
reasonably large, the profit is exceedingly 
small. The field must be plowed, and 
harrowed, and fertilized ; the corn must be 
planted ; it must be plowed again ; and still 
again, must be hoed ; and at last the ears must 
be stripped, husked, and ground. What is the 
net result of this compared with the natural 
increase of fish grown in abundance, almost 
without effort, finding their own food, and 
finally taken in some net which does its fish- 
ing while its owner is sleeping? 

Then the relative productiveness; the ear 
of corn grown from a single kernel will more 
frequently fall below than rise above a thou- 
sand grains. A shad lays, say sixty thousand 



12 



eggs, of which we have said fifteen thousand 
can be brought to maturity with the care and 
oversight of man. Were the farmer to strew 
his corn broadcast over sod and rock alike, 
" by the wayside and on the stony places," 
and leave it to come up with weeds and tares 
without manure or attention, he would hardly 
expect a good crop, and would find much 
trouble in living on the proceeds, no matter 
how much land he owned, and yet this is pre- 
cisely what we do with fish. To judge by what 
has been effected it may be confidently asserted 
that fish culture is yet to add a very large pro- 
portion to the wealth and resources of the 
world, above all to the riches of this continent. 
At present our vast lakes are left untilled, 
some of the smaller ponds and many streams 
in the older and more thickly settled States 
have absolutely no edible fish in them, and 
some no fish whatever ; the hook, the net, the 
spear and the ' ' jack" — night-spearing — has an- 
nihilated the last one. They teemed once with 
their natural inhabitants. Why cannot they 
be made to do so again ? The evidence of our 
own and other countries clearly prove they 
can. 

The decrease of fish is attributed to over- 
fishing and unseasonable fishing, which is 
true; but these are the ordinary concomitants 
of advancing civilization and increasing popu- 
lation, and only admonish us that man must 
use his mind to increase the supply. It has 
been alleged that the food had diminished 
even in the sea; and here again I cannot 
do better than quote from the report before 
alluded to of the New York commissioners: 

"A familiar explanation of the decreasp of fish, 
given by all those who are interested in keeping up 
the present unwise mode of destruction of the fish- 
eries, is that their food has disappeared. It was 
■essential in the first place to ascertain whether tiiis 
was true; and to determine the question dredges 
•were drawn over the mussel beds, and the water in 
various parts of the bays and ocean was examined, 
to see if it contained much animal life. These exam- 
inations demonstrated that instead of any decrease 
in the supply of food, it must absolutely have in- 
creased from reduced consumption and the destruc- 
tion of its natural enemies ; the bivalves, crustacears, 
and all manner of similar creatures were abundant 
on the bottom, while the water was literally alive 
with animal matter, with polyps, infusoria, jelly- 
fish, &c. A bucketful taken from it anywhere was 
simply full of such animalcula. Here was one point 



settled conclusively; true that the menhaden had 
been used for their oil to an extent that had made 
them scarce, and their disappearance had injured 
the more ravenous varieties of fish, but the bottom- 
feeders and the slow swimmers had around them 
more food than they could possibly consume." 

The truth is the food is too abundant, for 
these creatures often prey on one another, 
the smaller varieties devouring the egii;s and 
young of the larger, a,nd becoming, in their 
turn, a prey to those of maturer growth. 
And here is the true explanation of the rapid 
extinction of fisheries when they become 
depleted beyond a certain limit. Nature bal- 
anced the number of each kind, providing 
that mutual destruction of one another should 
keep all in check. Man destroys this equi- 
poise by killing those only that he can use. 
The rest then augment at an increased ratio, 
the enemies of all sorts of the edible kinds 
h^ave no check, they multiply, and multiply 
until they obtain the mastery, and then quickly 
comes the end when the better sorts are exti-rm- 
inated. This is apparent, but is sustained 
by the fact that new varieties when introduced 
into unaccustomed waters increase for the 
first few years with inordinate I'apidity. For 
a time their natural foes do not exist in suf- 
ficient numbers to curtail this growth, but as 
the latter develop the counterbalance is re- 
stored and the stimulated activity of reproduc- 
tion ceases. 

The time may come in the distant future 
when the edible fishes shall be made so abun- 
dant by artificial cultivation that the food of 
the piscivorous sorts may fail ; then it may be 
pecessary to breed those which live on water- 
grasses and vegetables to supply the others 
with sustenance. At present, however, there 
is no such necessity ; not only is the sea alive 
with food, but the large lakes are equally well 
peopled. It is a curious fact that in Lakes 
Huron and Superior is found the salt water 
shrimp in the deeper parts, and in quantities 
equal to that in the ocean. This shrimp, which 
itself is exceedingly prolific, is the principal 
food of the true salmon, the salmo salar, and 
is supposed to constitute the red color of the 
flesh. But if it were requisite the cyprinidae 
could be cultivated or introduced, orsotne other 
variety which lives solely on a vegetable diet, 
but which of themselves are not good for food. 



13 



This will doubtless be done as soon as it is 
needed, and has already been successfully tried 
in Europe, so that should the present supply of 
fivsh food give out it could be replenished. 

The fisheries of our coasts are among the 
most valuable commercial interests of our 
country. Millions of money are invested and 
hundreds of thousands of men are employed, 
while the food thus obtained is a large per- 
centage of the total supply of the eastern mar- 
kets. Not only is the profit of this business a 
matter of general advantage, but the residents 
along the eastern bays and lagoons and upon 
the larger rivers derive their principal means 
of sustenance directly from these waters, and 
in all these disiricts far more families are sup- 
ported by the water than by the land. In the 
West there is nothing of this sort. The mar- 
kets are almost bare of fish; a few catfish, 
euckers, and pickerel constitute the wretched 
and meager bill of fare they offer. The muddy 
Mississippi contains little or nothing. The 
beautiful Ohio has but one or two sorts of 
pike-perch, which the inhabitants flatteringly 
call salmon, while catfish hide in most of the 
d iscolored streams of our continent and suckers 
explore the bottom for their food. 

If anything can be done to improve this 
state of affairs, to make fish and fishermen as 
abuiidui-.t in the West as they are in New 
. England, and to develop the same activity in 
\this matter that exists in the East, it is well 
yorth the serious consideration of 'he Gov- 
ertiment. By this means a new industry, an 
ackiiiional source of income, an entirely dif- 
ferent species of food would be introduced, 
atid an immense increase added to the wealth 
of the whole region of country. There is no 
reason why the waters of the West should be 
less prolific than those of the East, provided 
the right species were introduced ; and were 
trout, salmon, bass, shad, and sturgeon to 
take the place of catfish, pickerel, and suck- 
ers, the gain would be manifest. 

It seems to me clearly to be the duty of the 
Government to assist in this very work of 
introducing new varieties, as well as replenish- 
ing the old where they have been reduced. 
No private person can own a shad which is 
here to-day and in mid-ocelan to-morrow, 
nor is a single resident on a river's bank suf- 



ficiently interested to incur the expense of 
importing fish for the benefit of his neighbors. 
This is the nation's duty or it is nobody's. 
The mighty rivers of the southern and western 
States, which now produce generally only the 
poorer sorts, could readily be stocked with the 
most palatable and prolific sorts. The shad 
has already been acclimatized in some of the 
Alabama rivers, where it never before was 
known, and the Potomac has been filled with 
black bass almost to repletion ; but that was 
the unaided effort of individuals as , a mere 
matter of experimental curiosity. Other riv- 
ers remain still unimproved, and several foreign 
species of fish should be introduced. For 
instance, the magnificent Danube salmon,, 
which attains a weight of a hundred pounds, 
might be acclimatized in the Ohio and the 
upper Mississippi, while the true salmon might i 
be brought to the Delaware and Susquehanna. ,/ 
This is perfectly simple and easy. Salmon 
have been transported while in the embryo 
state from England to Australia, half way 
round the globe; our white-fish, trout, and 
salmon-trout have been sent to England, and 
living shad were actually transported from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, offering the possibility 
of supplying that entire coast and ocean with 
a new fish. This latter was a remarkable feat ; 
but trout spavu n.re sent from one ond of our 
country to the other with as little trouble or 
danger as letters, and are delivered by express 
precisely as any other packages. The slow- 
hatching fish are the more easily handled in 
this particular, as the eggs develop slowly and 
will live perfectly well packed in damp moss, 
but other kinds only require care and ex- 
perience. 

The cost of this undertaking is insignifi- 
cantly moderate. A salmon-hatching house 
can be built for $1,000 while the neces- 
sary implements fur shad raising are too in- 
expensive to be worth mentioning. Some 
labor must be employed, but it is mostly un- 
skilled and cheap, while the outlay for trans- 
portation is simply the mere charge of express 
or traveling fare. The people of this country 
would not grudge this were it a hundred times 
as great with the certain prospect of develop- 
ing a new food resource and of diminishing 
the price of living to the poor. 



14 



The importance of this matter can hardly be 
^erestimated. We raise animals for man's 
ie, cross their breeds, study their food, and 
y and adapt their surroundings to their great- 
it development. We cultivate plants and 
^getables, and strive to obtain new species 
id improved varieties. We import cattle 
ora Europe, horses from Africa, sheep from 
pain, wheat from Egypt, sorghum from Asia, 
ur daily struggle is to make the most of what- 
rer can be turned to the support of the human 
\.ce, except with one great class which has 
ways contributed, and, unless exterminated, 
ways will contribute largely to that end. 
''ho would have thought twenty years ago 
lat a despised "love apple" could ever be 
)nverted into the useful tomato 1 And in 
irlier days who would have expected the 
lange from the poisonous wild potato into 
16 succulent root which now supports a na- 
on and adds to the comfort of every human 
eing? 



What was done with the common tomatoes, 
potatoes, onions, and hundreds of other vege- 
table productions, which, as wild, were worth- 
less, may in a higher degree be carried into 
effect with fish. Wild rice scarcely produces 
enough seed to continue the supply ; but pro- 
tected, developed, encouraged, it feeds a tenth 
part of the world. Fish neglected, destroyed, 
poached and wasted, can soon be annihilated. 
Their reproductive power can only maintain a 
certain equilibrium ; incline that toward de- 
struction, and the entire class will quickly dis- 
appear. Treat them like wild animals, and 
they will inevitably be exterminated ; domes- 
ticate them, as it were, encourage their growth 
by putting them under heathful influences, pro- 
tect them from unseasonable disturbance, let 
them breed in peace, guard the young from 
injury, assist them by artificial aid, select the 
best varieties for appropriate waters, and we 
will soon augment the supply as greatly as we 
do with either land animals or vegetables. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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